


A Severe Case of Mom Guilt

by amazingsantiago



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 20:32:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17189912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazingsantiago/pseuds/amazingsantiago
Summary: Don’t get her wrong, being a police captain is Amy’s dream job. But with a husband and two kids at home, things are a little more complicated than Amy ever imagined.





	A Severe Case of Mom Guilt

Don’t get her wrong, being a police captain is Amy’s dream job.

 

She’s always wanted to run her own precinct and she’s immensely grateful to now be in this position, but it does come with its challenges. Namely, being stuck in the precinct when one of her detectives arrests a perp without sufficient evidence, forcing them all to stay later than planned. With a husband and two adorable kids at home, Amy hates being at work any longer than she has to. She has bedtime stories to read, babies to tuck in, wine to drink with her husband after the kiddos are asleep. While she loves being Captain Santiago (she kept her name for simplicity’s sake at work, but she is happily and proudly Mrs Amy Santiago-Peralta the second she steps into their three-bed Brooklyn apartment), she loves being a wife and mom more.

 

“I’m home!” She calls out, hanging up her bag and coat. She hears a soft thud and then the sounds of her two small children running towards her. She sometimes feels bad for Mrs Brennan, the elderly lady who lives in the apartment beneath theirs, and decides to buy her a bouquet of flowers to thank her for putting up with her noisy kids (and husband). She tucks that thought into the back of her mind as said kids barrel into her arms, nearly knocking her over.

 

She hugs them both tightly, savouring this moment for as long as she can. They’re already growing up so fast; Mia is five now and Sam is three next week. One day they’ll be teenagers spending all their time in their bedrooms or out with their friends and they won’t want to hug her like this when she gets home from work.

 

Mia slips out of her arms and starts filling Amy in on everything she’s done that day, while Amy settles the toddler on her hip and heads off in search of her husband. “Daddy and me played cops with all my stuffed animals and Tiger was really naughty and had to be sent to prison and then we had lunch and I ate all my carrots because daddy said they’d help me see better and not get nerdy glasses like you and then daddy painted my nails sparkly pink but Sammy didn’t want to be left out so daddy had to paint his nails too and then we had a nap with daddy on the sofa and now you’re here!”

 

Amy laughs, ruffling Mia’s messy curls. “That sounds like the best day ever, Mia Moo!”

 

“It was,” she agrees wholeheartedly. Her face falls and she looks like the spitting image of her father when Amy says she doesn’t want to watch _Die Hard._ “I wish you were here though.”

 

When Amy found out she was pregnant, she expected the early mornings, the tantrums (at home and even worse, in public) and how messy their super-organised apartment would become. She had nieces and nephews, so for the most part she knew what she was in for. Camila had described the intense love Amy would feel once the foetus inside of her was a tiny baby in her arms; it would be like nothing Amy had ever felt before.

 

(“Why do you think I had eight babies, mija? It certainly wasn’t for the sleepless nights and diaper changes.”)

 

What Amy wasn’t prepared for was the mom guilt that would consume her everytime she was out furthering her career instead of spending time with her children.

 

Since Mia changed her life forever by making her a mom, Amy had spent many nights crying into Jake’s shoulder, worried that prioritising her job made her a bad mom. He obviously reassured her that she was the best mom and wife in the entire world - _“yeah, even better than Holly Gennaro, Ames”_ \- everytime her concerns arose, but she still felt guilty whenever she left for the precinct before she could take them to school or arrived home after they’d gone to sleep.

 

And she feels it again now with Mia pouting and saying she wished Amy had been with them all day instead of being at work.

 

Her words catch in her throat and moisture builds behind her eyes because her daughter shouldn’t have to miss her like that. She should be there for her, for them. “I -.”

 

“Mommy has to go to work to protect Brooklyn from bad guys, remember?” Her husband says, appearing behind them and winking at her when she visibly relaxes. “I know we all miss her loads and would love it if she were here to paint our nails sparkly pink because she’s much better at it than daddy is, but the NYPD needs her. She’s the best cop in the city.”

 

“She’s the best cop in the entire world!” Mia corrects, spreading her arms super wide.

 

“Damn right she is.”

 

Amy’s eyes soften and she pulls Jake in for a kiss. She’s so touched she doesn’t even chastise him for cursing in front of the kids. She may be the best cop in New York - nay, the entire world - but he’s the best dad. She couldn’t do what she does without him.

 

He works reduced hours now, which was totally his idea. Amy never thought he’d go for it, thought they’d have to prematurely spend Mia and Sam’s college savings on childcare, but it was actually Jake’s idea. He wanted to be there for his kids the way his parents weren’t. He was desperate for them to have a better childhood than he did. So he spent less time in the field, less time in the precinct, more time doing “hairbag” work at home. Every so often she’d see a glimmer in his eye whenever Rosa would tell a dope story about how she’d caught a perp robbing a bodega on her lunch break, chased him five blocks and handcuffed him against a squad car, a hint of longing whenever Charles would talk about a stakeout. It never lasted long because Jake would pull out his phone and show them pictures of Sam’s “artwork” and videos of Maya dancing to _Shake it Off_ and his face would break out into an ear to ear grin.

 

“Ew,” Maya says, pulling a face and simultaneously pulling Amy out of her reverie. “Kissing is gross.”

 

“Gross!” Sam repeats.

 

Jake narrows his eyes at her. “Kissing isn’t gross when it’s me and your mom. I’m a great kisser. You, on the other hand, are not allowed to kiss anyone until you’re at least thirty-two.”

 

“Good luck with that, dad,” Amy teases. “What’s for dinner?”

 

“Frozen pizza and veggies good with you?”

 

“As long as we can crack open that bottle of wine your parents bought us with it,” she responds, following him into the kitchen. She lets Sam down so he can play with his toy kitchen and sits herself on the counter as she half-watches her husband get out two pizzas from the freezer and half-watches her son bang his plastic pans together.

 

“Bad day at work?”

 

“Very,” she sighs. “Detective Lopez arrested a perp on a hunch without any evidence and we all had to stop what we were doing to fix his mess.”

 

“Holt must have hated me when I did that,” Jake says sheepishly, folding the pizza boxes so they fit better in the recycling bin, just like Amy likes.

 

“I hated you a lot that day, too.”

 

He clutches his chest, wounded. “I can’t believe you’d say that to your brilliant husband.”

 

“You weren’t my brilliant husband back then, you were my annoying partner who messed up a case and made us stay in the precinct for 48 hours. At least we managed to find sufficient evidence within five hours today.”

 

“Still, I bet the DA was a nightmare for those five hours.”

 

“Oh, that reminds me! You’ll never guess who the DA was? _Sophia Perez_ ,” she says, not giving him chance to guess.

 

He raises his eyebrows as he empties a bag of frozen carrots, peas and sweetcorn into a pan and fills it with water. He puts the pan on a low heat and stands between his wife’s legs. “As in… my ex-girlfriend Sophia Perez?”

 

“The one and only.”

 

“No wonder you want wine,” he remarks. “That must have been awkward. I’m sorry, babe.”

 

“It wasn’t that awkward actually,” Amy says, draping her arms over his shoulders. “She noticed my rings and I showed her the pictures on my desk. She was very happy for us and said that we have beautiful family. I think she went easy on me because of our history.”

 

“You’re welcome then,” he grins, kissing her again now that their staunchly anti-PDA daughter is otherwise distracted playing chef with her little brother. “And you’re welcome for what I said to Mia.”

 

She bites her lip, playing with the hair at the back of his neck. “Maybe I should take a few days off to spend time with them.”

 

Jake casts his eyes to their kids, an amused smirk playing at his lips when Mia starts bossing Sam around.

 

Amy notices, too. “Don’t you dare say it, Peralta.”

 

“Wouldn’t dream of it, babe,” he promises. “The point is, the kids are _fine_. They’re great. Obviously they’d love spending a few days with you - we all would - but we have most evenings together and we’re all going to your parents’ next weekend. You love being a captain and you’re so good at it. You don’t need to sacrifice that because of stupid mom guilt.”

 

“But Mia wished I was here with her today.”

 

“So what? I used to sit at the desk opposite you and I’d miss you even if you only left for two minutes to make a coffee. We all love you like crazy and we - well, I can see - how happy you are as a captain. All we want is for you to be happy.”

 

Sam squeals happily as his “toast” pops out of the bright green toaster. Mia instructs their Alexa to play _Shake it Off_. Amy tightens her hold on her husband.

 

“Sophia was right, we do have a beautiful family.”

 

“The beautiful-ist,” Jake jokes, surprised when she doesn’t correct his grammar. “You’re just gonna ignore that? You’re not going to roll your eyes and tell me it’s _‘more beautiful, Peralta_ ’?”

 

“I’m too content right now to care,” she replies.

 

Don’t get her wrong, being a police captain is her dream job, but this right here? Hanging out in the kitchen while her husband makes dinner and her son plays with her toys and her daughter dances to Taylor Swift is better than any captain’s office, uniform or commendation she could _ever_ receive.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what u think!! your comments always brighten my day


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